A Box of Tea
by QuickWren
Summary: He'd been electric, his blood bubbling and his skin a thin layer of charged ions. He was ice cold and boiling all at once, a frozen Hell on Earth. Everything was liquid and white noise. The ground, the sky, his bones, all a thick pool of gelatinous nothingness and static electricity. 'So uncool,' he thought, as it all faded to black. "Artemis is gonna kill me."
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

He'd been electric, his blood bubbling and his skin a thin layer of charged ions. He was ice cold and boiling all at once, a frozen Hell on Earth except he wasn't sure he was on Earth anymore. Everything was liquid and white noise. The ground, the sky, his bones, all a thick pool of gelatinous nothingness and static electricity.

'So uncool,' he thought, as it all faded to black. "Artemis is gonna kill me."

* * *

The first sensation he could register as he came to was that his teeth hurt. Not his mouth, or his gums, but his teeth – the core and enamel and roots were aching. Then, slowly, as the sensation began to trickle its way back in, he realized numbly that it wasn't just his teeth. A dull throb pulsed through him, starting as a tingle in his finger tips but spreading deep into his chest. A groan escaped him as he tried to blink his eyes open. He was rewarded with blurry shapes and the pain of glaring lights.

"Woahhh, Space Man's coming back to Earth." Wally hissed at the words. It wasn't a voice he recognized. He tried to speak, to say something witty, but all he could get out was garbled nonsense. "Hey, cool it Space Man." The voice was feminine. "Your voice is shot. You've been asleep for three days, at least. Actually, I don't know if you were awake when you crash landed." He twisted his shoulder to the left, trying to focus his vision on the person in the chair beside him. She had dark hair and pale skin, that much he could tell. There was something red in her hands.

"Who're you…?" he managed to grit out.

The woman chuckled, and Wally could make out the sound of a pen clicking. "Linda Park, Central City News. And you are….?"

"No comment," Wally muttered off, repressing a sigh. Just his luck, a reporter. What'd happened? What had he gotten himself into now? Why did everything hurt?

"No dice, kid. You don't get to crash land in the middle of Central Park and tell me 'no comment.' You have any idea how much damage your little stunt caused?" Wally's vision swirled into focus, and he watched as the reporter tucked a red notepad under her arm. Linda's eyebrows furrowed. "Or how much work I've done to keep this off the radar?"

He let his shoulder fall back, collapsing onto what he now realized was a hospital bed. "Why?" he muttered softly, swallowing hard to push the pain in his throat back.

"Why? Why what?" He could hear in Linda's voice that she was mad. "Why'd you fall from the sky and cause thousands of damage to public property? Gee, I dunno. Maybe that's what I'm trying to find out."

"Why," Wally repeated slowly, "...off the... radar?"

"Because," Linda answered with a snort, "this is the story of the year. Mysterious man falls from sky during lightning storm and lives. No way I'm letting anyone steal this from me."

He tried to fight it. He really did. But the world was getting heavy and Wally's eyes were burning. As he fought to keep them open, he muttered, "Thank… you."

"Wha… hey!" He felt Linda's arm on his shoulder as his eyes closed. "Don't go back to sleep!" Wally heard a door open, and the sound of an irate nurse entering the room. Linda ignored her. "Talk to me! Hey!"

Wally tried to hide his chuckle as the nurse asked Linda to leave. Linda was giving her disgruntled reply as he faded back into sleep.

* * *

When he awoke again, Wally was actually able to think straight.

"What the hell happened?" It was the dead of night. Monitors blinked around him, faint LEDs reporting on his vital signs. He was completely alone.

It took milliseconds for him to disconnect from the hospital machinery and crawl out the window into the open air of night. A cool breeze fluttered his hospital gown, causing a shiver to run through his body. Oh. Right. Clothes. He should probably get some clothes. So, at top speed, Wally headed towards the nearest zeta tube. He kept an extra set of clothes at the Watchtower. Plus, when he got there, he could see if anyone could tell him what exactly was going on.

He skidded to a stop as the busted phone booth outside the Central City Library came into view. His whole body ached and his bare feet were raw from running on concrete, but it was almost done with. "Dick better have a good reason for not busting me out," he muttered under his breath. "For the son of Batman, you'd think he'd have managed to find me."

Wally pushed the door to the phone booth open and froze. Instead of the voice of the computer activating the zeta tube, he was met with a loud creak. "Hello?" He wiggled the door. "Anybody?" No response. "B03? Kid Flash?" Silence. Slamming the door shut, Wally huffed and headed towards Keystone. The Central City zeta must be busted.

When the Keystone zeta was down too, Wally cursed under his breathe. When the Chicago and Midway City zetas didn't work, his hands started to shake. With bloody soles and a hungry pit in his stomach, Wally did the only thing he could think to do and headed to Gotham.

* * *

Gotham was a mistake.

As the door to Wayne Manor slowly creaked open, Wally fought to keep himself talking at a normal pace. "Alfred, thank God. Is Dick home? The zetas-" When a face peered out through the crack in the door, Wally froze. "You're not Alfred."

An older man with greying black hair and heavyset eyes peered back at him, cautious though not unkind. He nodded slowly. "No I am not."

Realization dawned, drowning Wally slowly, and the speedster stumbled back a step. "Uh..."

The man lowered an eyebrow at him. "Who are you?" A scowl started to etch itself onto his face. "Do you know Alfred?"

Hands shaking and heart racing, Wally took another step back before he took off running, full speed. Though he'd never met the man before, he recognized him from the numerous portraits he'd seen hanging on the walls of the Manor.

Thomas Wayne.

"I'm... I'm not in Kansas anymore."

* * *

Feet bloody, stomach empty and out of options, Wally made his way to the nearest 24 hour super center.

The next day, the store would report a set of clothes, sneakers and five bags of Chicken Whizees missing from their inventory. However, when they checked the security footage, all they'd see was a bright streak. Interference on the feed, no doubt.

* * *

"This cannot be real." He told himself every night when he fell asleep, hiding out under bridges and in subway tunnels. But every morning, when he woke up, nothing changed. Wally checked the zetas, checked the news, checked the papers, but found nothing. No mention of him, or the Flash, or the League.

It took nearly a week for Wally to pull himself together enough to make a fake ID. He'd been stealing, mostly from dumpsters but that wasn't always true, and he hated to steal, he really did, but he needed to eat.

The team was going to come for him, wherever he was. He knew they were. But for now... he needed a job.

After two months of working at three different fast food joints and sleeping under park benches, he'd finally saved up enough money for the down-payment on a shoebox apartment. It wasn't much, but it was home. He didn't have any belongings, so he slept with a pillow on the floor. He settled down for bed that first night, and even though he closed his eyes, sleep would not come. Instead, something heavy clenched his chest.

To ease the pain, he told himself what he told himself every night. "Someone will come for me soon."

* * *

"Woah!" He watched in slow motion as Ms. Gyeon's bad leg twisted, shifting her weight unnaturally to the side. Wally was beside her in an instant. At a speed only he could reach, he shifted his grocery bags into his right hand so he could catch her arm with his left. "What's a lovely young lady like yourself doing unescorted on a fine day like this?"

Ms. Gyeon steadied herself with her cane, then playfully swatted Wally's hand away. Wally continued, "You ought to have one of your suitors walking you home."

The older woman chuckled, a grin pulling at the wrinkles of her face. "Who needs suitors when my tenants are as charming as you, dear?" She pushed herself forward, wobbling up the stairs of the building that her family had owned for many years.

Wally tsked, pushing the door open for her as they made their way inside. "Somewhere, a crowd of men's hearts just broke."

Ms. Gyeon laughed and patted his arm. As she pushed into her own apartment, she smiled softly at Wally and mouthed, "Thank you." Wally nodded in response.

With Ms. Gyeon home safe and sound, Wally made his way up the three flights of stairs to the one bedroom apartment that he called his own. The door creaked as he shut it behind him, and he set his grocery bags down on the chipped linoleum counter-top. The bags rustled as he moved to put his food away, but as he reached the end, he came abruptly to a stop. The apartment grew silent.

In the bottom of the bag was a small green box of Jasmine tea, embroidered with gold lettering and wrapped in a thin layer of plastic. He hadn't realized he'd bought it. He didn't even like tea.

It was Artemis's favorite brand.

With shaking hands, he put it on the top shelf of his far left cabinet and shut the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Wally West." His head jerked up, an instinctive reaction. And he found himself face to face with Linda Park.

"Uh-oh" he muttered as he shoved a crumpled handful of papers into his backpack. How had she learned his name?

Wally'd been thrilled when he'd been accepted into Central Community College's Forensic Science program. With his fake ID and the social security number one of Ms. Gyeon's deceased friends had "donated" to him, he'd been able to fill out all of the forms. By taking 24 credits a semester, he was scheduled to graduate in two and a half years. It wasn't ideal but, given his situation, it was a dream come true.

So to see Linda Park stomping into the room at the end of his fourth day of lectures, well…. His dream was on the fast track to becoming a nightmare.

She stopped up short beside him, her foot tapping impatiently on the strap of his bag.

He glanced up at her, one eyebrow raised. "Can I help you, ma'am?"

"Don't you 'ma'am' me." Wally fought the urge to cringe. "You know exactly who I am and exactly why I'm here. The hospital is irate with me! It's been half a year and I'm still not welcome back. The nurse told them it was my fault you ran off." She lowered her eyes into a glare. "I didn't even get a story out of it."

Wally widened his eyes, trying to plaster as much confusion and shock into his expression as he could. "I'm sorry, I really don't know what you're talking about."

He tried not to let the guilt eat at him as he gathered up his bag and rushed out of the room.

* * *

"What's wrong?" a tiny voice asked from behind him.

He looked down and found himself face to face with a pair of big brown eyes.

"Uh..." The little girl's head tiled as Wally scrambled for a response. "I'm…. I'm just….. lost."

The little girl nodded, fidgeting with her floral print dress. "I've been lost before. It was scary."

Wally kicked at a stone aimlessly, and it toppled into the crater before him. It was the first time he'd come to Central City Park since he'd landed in this world, and the damage his impact had made hadn't been completely repaired yet.

"Do you need help finding your mommy and daddy?" He glanced at the girl, and her expression was earnest and kind.

Wally chuckled but swallowed hard. "No…. They'll find me."

* * *

A clutter of texts book laid open, scattered around the floor of his tiny apartment. On the nights where he didn't have work, Wally spent his free time researching inter-dimensional physics and interplanetary relativity. Notes lay, illegible and smeared, across every free table and counter.

But still, he could not figure out how to get home. How could he, when he did not know where he was?

* * *

Ms. Gyeon's apartment smelled like mothballs and burnt meat.

Not that Wally wouldn't eat burnt meat. He wasn't the type to say no to free food, especially when that free food wasn't from one of the three restaurants he worked at. So when Ms. Gyeon offered to make him an authentic Korean dish, he jumped at the opportunity.

He'd never had Japchae before, but the noodles were sweet and tangy and even the charred beef was worlds beyond the grease soaked fast food burgers he'd grown accustomed to. From the tiny dining room table, Wally eyed the remaining noodles in the kitchen.

Ms. Gyeon sipped coyly on her plum tea, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. "You can finish it, if you'd like, dear." An embarrassed grin slipped onto Wally's face. Busted. As he stood and made is way into kitchen, Ms. Gyeon said, "You're sweet to spend your Friday night with an old lady like me. Feeding you is the least I can do."

"I like spending time with you. There's nowhere else I'd rather be." Ms. Gyeon reached over and refilled his cup of tea as he scooped the rest of the Japchae onto his plate.

As Ms. Gyeon finished pouring his drink, Wally moved back to the table. As he sat himself down, the woman beside him gasped. "Oh, that's terrible." Wally's head perked up. On the small TV that Ms. Gyeon had muted in the corner of the room, the blurry image of smoke danced upon the screen. He moved closer to it, dread making his limbs heavy and his hands numb.

Through the noise flickering through the screen, Wally managed to make out the words "CENTRAL TOWER AFLAME."

"Ms. Gyeon," he asked, his mouth dry. "Could you please turn on the sound?"

When she did, Linda Park's voice, grainy and distorted, echoed through the speakers. "-department says that local firefighters have been unable to control the flames. Though the majority of the building has been evacuated, there are six residents still unaccounted for. While the source and cause of the flame is still unknown, police do not suspect any foul play to-"

"I need to go." Wally inhaled a sharp breath as he turned to leave the room. "I'm so sorry."

As he moved out the apartment door, he heard Ms. Gyeon call out, "Be safe!"

* * *

The papers had been filled with talk about the "Sensation of Central City." Six people pulled from a burning building at the speed of light. Countless fist-fights broken apart by an unknown force. One time, a bank robber found his gun suddenly replaced with a banana.

Wally had never intended to start fighting crime. There were no meta-humans here, no need for a hero of his special design. And he didn't want the people to get familiar with him, if he was only going to leave.

And yet, when the Central City News caught the blur of a man in an overly large red sweatshirt darting in and out of the scene, Wally couldn't help himself. In an unmarked envelope, slipped under the crack in Linda Park's office door, was a note that read only, "He's called The Flash."

'There,' he thought as he sped away. 'She got her story.'

* * *

On the one year anniversary of his crash landing on Earth 2.0, Wally threw out the box of Jasmine tea.

After a couple days of deliberation, he replaced it with another.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Wally was unendingly grateful that the Internet was a thing in this world. Sure, he could read a text book at the speed of light, but that didn't mean a simple Google search wasn't oh so much simpler. Homework was a lot easier when the answers could be summoned from a keyboard.

Since he was tight on cash, Wally found himself at the student Union's hipster coffee shop. They had public computers, free wi-fi, and most importantly, cheap coffee. What more did a guy need? His Forensic Chemistry notes were scattered across the tabletop, and his eyes zipped across the screen as he read about the different spectroscopy techniques, committing to memory the distinction between FTIR and AA methods.

After staring at the screen for a couple hours, the back of his head was beginning to throb. Pulling away for a moment, he sipped on his second cup of coffee, feeling it burn the back of his tongue as he rested his eyes.

He opened them again when he heard the sound of a chair scratching across the dull tile floor. He turned to his left to find Linda Park sitting cross legged in the chair beside him. "Not you again."

"Good seeing you too," she said, her eyebrow lowered.

Wally gripped his coffee cup a little harder but kept his expression neutral. "What can I help you with?"

Linda shrugged coyly. "I just wanted to ask if you've ever heard of the Flash."

It took all of Wally's composure not to drop his cup of coffee right there. The Flash had only been active in this world for a month and he'd already been found out? His mind went blank. Without thought, Wally replied. "No." He felt his heart beat harder in his chest. Stupid. Why had he given Linda Park, of all people, the info about his alter-ego's name? Stupid stupid stupid. Linda hadn't replied, instead lowering her eyebrow even further. "I don't even know you," Wally went on. "Why are you asking me?" He pulled his coffee cup up to his mouth, trying to give his best impression of nonchalance.

At that, Linda snorted and looked away. "You're the only college kid I know. I was just wondering if you had any insight on the Venereal disease that's been spreading across campus."

Wally spit his coffee into his lap. Linda continued as though it hadn't happened.

"Apparently it's kinda like the Clap, but faster. So kids have been calling it the Flash." She glanced at him, a smirk pulling at the corner of her mouth. "But if you don't know anything about it, I'll be on my way."

She stood and paced from the room, the sound of heels' echoing after her as she turned the corner into the main dining hall. Wally was left alone, her words sinking in slowly, like the coffee on his jeans.

* * *

He passed his second semester with ease, well on his way to a straight 4.0. For his third semester, he decided to register for introductory Vietnamese. He was required to take an ethnic studies course. This one felt like home.

* * *

Criminal justice wasn't a required course for Wally's major, but his adviser had recommended it, since it was likely he'd have to testify in court at some point in his life. It didn't hurt that he found it incredibly interesting, if not a little ironic (given who he was and how he liked to spend his free time). It had easily become one of his favorite classes.

Which was why, when he'd received a call from an unknown number in the middle of lecture, he'd ignored it and put his phone away. It didn't occur to him, until an hour after lecture was done, that the only one with that number was Ms. Gyeon.

When the realization hit, he'd whipped the phone out and immediately listened to the voice mail. His worst fears were confirmed. The caller was Central City Urgent Care. It was a hell of a way to discover he was listed as Ms. Gyeon's emergency contact.

Wally was outside the urgent care's doors before the voice mail had even finished. The phone was shoved into his pocket, the voice still rattling faintly from the speaker. At the front desk, he gave his name and asked to be taken to see his friend.

When he walked into the room, Ms. Gyeon was dressed in a hospital gown, eating jello with a plastic spoon and chatting amicably with the women sitting next to her. At the sound of the door opening, she turned to him. When the wrinkles of her face grew more pronounced as she smiled, Wally felt all the anxiety melt from his chest.

"Wally, dear, I'm so glad you're here. They won't let me leave unescorted and I'd very much like to go home."

"Oh, Ms. Gyeon, I'm so sorry, I should have been here sooner! It's all my fault, I turned my phone off and I missed-"

Ms. Gyeon raised her hand, silencing Wally with a swift wag of her finger. "It's my fault for falling, not yours for turning your phone off." Wally frowned harder. "It was sweet enough of you to come in the first place."

Shoulders drooping, Wally swallowed hard and muttered, "I should have been there." If he had answered his phone, he would have been there. "You've done so much for me, and-"

"That's what family does, Wally." He looked up at her, eyes wide. Ms. Gyeon's smile grew soft. "I help you when you need it. And you're here for me now."

He moved to her side, sitting down at the chair at the side of her bed. He took her hand and felt his eyes begin to burn. Even though he wasn't the one who'd been checked into urgent care, Wally started to cry.

* * *

When Ms. Gyeon's hospital bill was covered by a Wayne Foundation donation, Wally didn't think anything of it. It was just something the Wayne Foundation would do.

* * *

The laceration across her lower abdomen was deep, a sickly shade of earthy red that he was all too familiar with.

He'd been tracking this sex slave ring for three months. Without Dick's tech know-how, Artemis's stealth or Kaldur's intuition, the going had been slow. He'd had to rely on the information he could find online (not much) and the intel he could wrangle from street thugs (unreliable). With a particularly insightful tip, he'd managed to determine the time and location for the next "shipment." That's how he'd ended up in a tight-fitting red hoodie at a dimly lit warehouse on the bad side of town.

What he hadn't counted on was Linda Park beating him there.

Hidden behind a dumpster, Wally hissed through his teeth as the watched her run through the flicker of the dying street light. Though her sweatshirt was black, her white sneakers shone against the grim of the back alley streets. Wally shook his head and pressed his palms to his eyes, feeling the cloth of his homemade mask, coarse against his skin. She was going to get herself killed. He inhaled a deep breath.

Just as he prepped himself to swoop in and grab her, Wally heard a high-pitched yelp. His lungs emptied in a rush.

Darting into the open, Wally found himself staring at a set of decaying teeth, framed by a wiry, unkempt beard, set just below a pair of deep-sunken eyes. The man's hand shook, jiggling the knife that he'd managed to press against Linda's neck, causing it to shine.

"Who're you?" His voice was high and raspy, and a piece of dark lip hair curled into the corner of his mouth. "Waht're you doin' here?" Wally couldn't place the accent- it was like a cross between the Deep South and Eastern European.

"Calm down, sir." Wally raised his hands slowly, his voice low and soothing. "We don't want any trouble." He took a step forward, into the flickering light of the lamp above.

The man stumbled back, the knife pressing into Linda's skin as he moved. The reporter made a squeak as a thin cut slid into her neck, but other than that she held her tongue. "I dun want no trouble, ya hear me?" The man's voice was watery, like he was trying not to cry. "I ain't never hurt none of those girls. I just need the money. You understand?"

"I understand," Wally nodded, his lips drawing together tight. "Please, just let my friend go."

The man twitched, his breath pushing a strand of Linda's hair into her face. Wally watched as Linda's eyes squeezed tight, a tear sliding down her face. Then, in one swift move, she reached up and pulled the knife down.

"No!" Wally moved but he was too late.

The man's arms flailed, his hand shaking hard. The knife dipped down, piercing the sweatshirt, tucking into the fabric and then into her skin.

Wally had him off her in an instant, thrown across the alley before he could process what had happened. Linda was bleeding out into the tar and gravel.

Lifting her gently, Wally took off running towards Central City Urgent Care.

* * *

Even though it was 2 AM, Wally hadn't been able to sleep. Artemis used to love listening to the rain. These days, the sound of it just kept him awake.

When he'd heard the faint knocking, Wally wasn't surprised to find Linda standing in his doorway. It'd been three days since she'd been released from the hospital. Her hair was heavy against her face, her make-up streaking from her eyes and her clothes clinging damply to her skin. Even though Ms. Gyeon kept the building at 70 degrees, Linda was shaking.

"The doctors said I'd have died if you hadn't gotten me there as fast as you did."

Wally's lips pursed but he said nothing.

"It's my job to uncover dangerous things. I'm good at what I do. I'm the best because I report on the stories that no one else will." Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes. "And now, everytime I close my eyes, I feel that knife against my neck. I smell his breath" she shook "at the back of my throat."

Wally felt his fists clench.

She looked at him, eyes round and scared. "What do I do?"

"I'll get you a towel." He showed Linda to the living room, and she crumpled into his beat up sofa.

As Wally made his way to the bathroom closet, he thought back to all the times Artemis had awoken at his side, shaking from the nightmares of the things her father had made her do, all those years ago. When he returned, Wally handed the towel to Linda and walked to the kitchen.

Moments later, he re-entered the living room carrying a hot cup of Jasmine tea. "Drink this," he said, remembering Artemis's late night panic attacks. "It'll make you feel better."

Linda cupped the hot drink in both hands, only a slight tremble left in her fingers. She took a small sip. "Now what?"

"Now, we talk."

Three hours later, Linda's shaking had stopped and her breathing had evened. When Wally had left to refill her tea cup, he'd found her fast asleep in a ball on his couch. Draping a spare blanket over her, he'd gone to bed with a heavy heart.

As he fell asleep that night, Wally told himself that Artemis would be proud of him.

It still felt wrong that he'd opened her tea.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"You know, I don't think I'd be able to manage living your life." Linda clinked her tiny spoon against her mug before setting it on the wooden table. "I mean, even with the-" she waved her hands at him vaguely "- _you know_ , I don't think I'd have time for everything."

Wally snorted. "I guess." He picked up his own mug. "Coffee helps. I've heard that, if you drink enough of it, you don't need sleep anymore."

"My kind of superpower!" Linda agreed with a laugh.

Over the past few months, Linda had grown to become a close friend. With her help, tracking down criminals was indisputably easier. She had connections, sources to feed her information about all the cartel wars, weapon deals and slave rings across the northern United States. With her help, Wally was exponentially more effective.

"Still," she carried on, "you're something else, Wally West." He grinned. "I've heard your work has started inspiring other vigilantes."

"Is that so?" Wally couldn't say he was surprised. His uncle had been his inspiration. Back home, after the initial founding of the Justice League, more and more heroes had just kept popping up.

"Yea, there's reports coming out of Star City. Some guy's out pinning down bad guys with – get this – arrows." Wally froze. "No public interviews yet. Seems like no one can track him down." Wally slowly set his coffee down, his eyebrows furrowing. Linda lowered an eyebrow at him. "You okay, Space Man?"

"Uh, yea." Forcing himself to relax, Wally flashed her a smile. "Sounds way cool. But I should run, I have class soon."

The reporter watched as he packed up his bag. "You're a weird one, Wally," she muttered as he moved to leave.

"Nice seeing you too, Lin."

* * *

The Oliver Queen of this world was nothing like the Oliver Queen he'd grown up with.

For one, he didn't have a goatee. Which, in Wally's opinion, was by far a better look. He was younger, solemn and serious. This Ollie didn't have many friends. There was no Roy Harper, of any age, in Star City (he'd checked). A Dinah Lance had popped up in his searches, but when he'd tracked her down and worked out an excuse to talk to her, he knew she couldn't possibly be Black Canary. Not many 14-year-old girls were martial arts masters.

There was no Artemis Crock here either.

He'd probably talk to Oliver Queen at some point. Or maybe he'd ask Linda to do it. But for now, the guy was too raw and new to the game to be of much help. And though Wally hated to admit it, just seeing Ollie made him homesick in a way that he hadn't been in years.

* * *

"Mr. West."

Wally rubbed his eyes, head pounding. Finals started tomorrow. He needed to be ready, but with his three jobs, crime fighting and recent investigations in Star City, he'd had to divide his remaining time between studying and sleep. Which was why he now found himself exhausted at the Central Community College library at 1 A.M.

Looking up from his textbook, Wally started, shock driving all thoughts of sleep from his mind. "Mr. Wayne." Was this a dream?

The elder man smiled, the corner of his mouth wrinkling gently. "Please, call me Thomas. Would you mind if I sat here?" He gestured to the open seat at the table, directly across from him.

"No, uh, not at all." Wally swallowed, pushing a hand through his hair nervously. This had to be a dream. "Uh… how can I help you?"

Thomas chuckled, wringing his fingers together. "You help plenty, son. I had thought, perhaps, it is time that someone helps you."

"Uh…. What?" This could not be happening. This could not be real.

"Do you remember the first time we met?" Wally scrunched up his nose. "You knocked on my front door, asked for Alfred, and then disappeared." Thomas laughed, the sound genuine and full. "I'd thought I was going senile." Wally groaned internally. He'd nearly forgotten about that. Thomas continued. "But then, I saw reports about the Flash on the news, and I knew." This time, Wally groaned out loud.

The speedster peeked at his guest through grimacing eyes. "There's no chance you'd believe me if I said I didn't know what you were talking about, is there?"

Thomas Wayne grinned and shook his head. "Afraid not." When Wally reached up to rub his temples, Thomas continued. "Listen, I'm not here to cause any trouble for you. What you're doing – I think it's great."

Wally nodded slowly. "Uh… Thank you, sir."

Thomas chuckled again. "Don't thank me yet, son." The speedster raised his eyebrows. "As an extension of the Wayne Foundation, I've come to offer you assistance. Discreetly, of course." Thomas gestured around the empty building. "Which is why I've come so late at night. Anything you need, I'd be more than glad to supply."

"Oh, no, sir, I'm not doing this for-" Wally froze, a thought crossing his mind.

"Actually, there is one thing you might be able to help me with."

* * *

Two and a half years and one ceremony later, Wally was a full-fledged graduate of Central Community College with a degree in Forensic Science. That evening, he had treated Linda and Ms. Gyeon to dinner at the local buffet, and he'd eaten as much as he'd wanted.

As a graduation present, Ms. Gyeon had made him a recipe book of all her favorite Korean dishes. Hand-written and leather-bound, it was one of the most beautiful presents he'd ever received.

Linda had gotten him a gift basket. It contained a variety of different foods, including a small box of Jasmine tea. "All your favorites," she'd said with a smile. Wally smiled back, and though he'd never tell her that he wouldn't drink the tea, he appreciated it nonetheless.

Two weeks after that, he received a package in the mail. Though it was unmarked, he knew he had Thomas Wayne to thank for this particular graduation gift. When he opened it, Wally discovered a social security card, birth certificate and driver's license, all three real, and all three in his name.


End file.
